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The reason for withholding steel information is that sometimes there is more emphasis on a steel choice (over-analyzing) then on heat treatment. However, I assure you that steels selected have been tried and confirmed to be a great choice for performance kitchen knives and will be heat treated and ground for optimum performance.

Knives in both steels will be passed around, so they can be judged on their merits.

M

PS: I know you guys wonder when you finally start seeing my knives. I am clearing my last hurdle - giving knives a higher polish - very fine satin finish. I should be done with it in a matter of days.

"All beauty that has no foundation in use, soon grows distasteful and needs continuous replacement with something new." The Shakers' saying.

Right.
I think edge retention (duration), sharpen-ability, hardness, edge stability are the factors that people should be preoccupied with, rather than steel choices, though as a maker, one should select steels that are best suited for kitchen knives.

M

"All beauty that has no foundation in use, soon grows distasteful and needs continuous replacement with something new." The Shakers' saying.

I think you have a good point about preconceptions, Marko. The other day, one of the suppliers was asking on another forum if people might be interested in a certain carbon steel which shall go unmentioned if it was rolled out in thinner bars more suitable for things like kitchen knives. One knifemaker said that he had made a kitchen knife from the stuff and his experience was that it appeared to have a fine grain structure similar to another carbon steel that shall also not be mentioned, but which is one of the "gold standards" for custom kitchen knives, BUT the mystery steel appeared to have around 20% better edge retention. Having used the steel in question, I was not at all surprised about the better edge retention, but I was a little surprised about the possibility that you could get the grain size down that small because the mystery steel has a pretty good handful of a couple of carbide forming alloying elements.

Originally Posted by Marko Tsourkan

Right.
I think edge retention (duration), sharpen-ability, hardness, edge stability are the factors that people should be preoccupied with, rather than steel choices, though as a maker, one should select steels that are best suited for kitchen knives.

100% correct......"Someone" could san mai 1095 with SS and put a great HT and could say it's 52100-white1 or2 etc.....Would anyone Really know the difference.

Yeah. I wonder about that sometimes. It doesn't have to be a lie like that either though. It could be 1095 but remain unnamed, lol.
@Marko: A lot of people here just want to try out more and different cool things. I prefer knowing the composition of the steel in the knives I own. I just like to know things.

Yeah. I wonder about that sometimes. It doesn't have to be a lie like that either though. It could be 1095 but remain unnamed, lol.
@Marko: A lot of people here just want to try out more and different cool things. I prefer knowing the composition of the steel in the knives I own. I just like to know things.

I am sure some of this information will be available, but more importantly, test knives will be available for extensive testing in pro kitchen (or serious home cook kitchen) for as much time as necessary. The last time I lent my knife was for 2 months. Test knives will be made just for this task - I would not worry if they get beat up or even destroyed in the process of performance testing, so no restriction on sharpening and using.

I think emphasizing a knife's performance (edge retention, edge stability, sharpness, ease of sharpening) and standing by it would be an appropriate way to to market a knife.

M

"All beauty that has no foundation in use, soon grows distasteful and needs continuous replacement with something new." The Shakers' saying.